GST concerns: Sisodia to address Delhi traders through FB Live

In a bid to address the GST concerns of all the traders of Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will address them through a Facebook Live event on Friday.

The deputy CM will go live on Delhi government's social media page on Friday in an hour-long session during which he will take questions from traders as well as consumers.

The Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) had refused to organise the event as the social media campaign for its publicity required an open tender.

Two days ago, Sisodia had written to Chief Secretary M M Kutty seeking action against DIP Director Jayadev Sarangi for not arranging the Facebook Live event earlier this month on 'technical' grounds.

"In a bid to address the GST concerns of all the traders of Delhi, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia will address them live using the Facebook platform tomorrow evening from 6 to 7 PM," a statement from the DIP said here today.

This initiative is primarily aimed at about three lakh traders' fraternity of Delhi, it said.

In his letter to Kutty, Sisodia had asked him to initiate proceedings against Sarangi for 'dereliction of duty', and replace him with an 'officer who can perform'.

Sisodia, who heads the DIP, said the officer didn't know that such an event does not require an open tender and instead, needed only an internet connection and a camera.

The sources said the refusal was intended to avoid any probe in the future as the CBI had launched an investigation in connection with TalktoAK (Talk to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal) on the complaint of the Vigilance Department.

The DIP statement further said the response has been tremendous and people from all over the state have been calling in to get details about the Facebook Live on GST.

The questions can be posted at [email protected] before the event and at the Facebook page — www.facebook.com/DelhiGovernment during the FB Live event, an official said.